ARGH disaster!

[Gryphon]

We went to Naches to see one of my set of in-laws Wednesday and just got home today. I had some cyano that was starting to go nuts so I did a lights-out on the tank while I was gone to take care of it. I walked in to the apartment tonight when we got home and hear this ungodly racket in the bedroom. I opened the bed room door to find my 10g half empty! I'm not sure exactly what the heck happened, but one of my power heads was loose inside the tank, the suction cups had come loose. Only thing I can guess is it came loose and started spraying everywhere.

Luckily it doesn't look like I lost much other than a few small monti pieces that came off a frag that I set up on a piece of rubble. I've got 4gal of new salt water brewing up now with everything turned off, so hopefully I can get it in the tank tomorrow and assess the damage better.

 

[pinkfloydfan]

Well, first off, lights out is never a cure, especially for cyano bacteria. It may retard it a bit but will not get rid of it. Secondly, if no one was there to top off the aquarium, evaporation is why you lost water and in a small ten gal. you loose a lot quickly. Purchase some "Red Slime Remover" and use it to kill the cyano. This will help you get a quick hold on thing until you figure out where the excess nutrients that feed the cyano are coming from.

 

[Gryphon]

There is no way 5 gals of water evaporated from Wednesday to Saturday. And lights out + cleaning out as much as possible before hand worked just fine for clearing out what was in the tank.

 

[mfinn]

Glad there wasn't any big loss.
Perhaps it is time to look into some powerheads that are held up with magnets.

 

[pinkfloydfan]

There is no way 5 gals of water evaporated from Wednesday to Saturday. And lights out + cleaning out as much as possible before hand worked just fine for clearing out what was in the tank.

Since there was an absence of water and/or water stains and NO evidence of what you propose then I refer you to Sherlock Holmes; "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? Since the power head came off the glass and fell down farther into the tank (I presume) unless you had a powerful 750 gph or something in there it would be impossible to shoot water out, especially with newer dispersal patterns found from the Koralia pumps or similar. As far as the cyano, time will tell if re-appears in a week or two.

 

[Gryphon]

Since there was an absence of water and/or water stains and NO evidence of what you propose then I refer you to Sherlock Holmes; "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? Since the power head came off the glass and fell down farther into the tank (I presume) unless you had a powerful 750 gph or something in there it would be impossible to shoot water out, especially with newer dispersal patterns found from the Koralia pumps or similar. As far as the cyano, time will tell if re-appears in a week or two.

Ok I'll bite. Enlighten me then how a tank could evaporate 50% of its volume in three and a half days with no lights on and local temps weren't all that hot. Oh and while averaging the need for about 1 gal of top off a week for the past couple months prior to this.

Seals are all good, I double checked just a little bit ago, and wife is complaining the dresser drawers are swollen shut. I found the carpet behind the dresser is still slightly damp.

mfinn - Yeah I got pretty lucky with my losses. The small pieces of monti were really small slivers that had broken off another frag I got, maybe an inch long and 1/8th inch wide. I had glued a couple in a spiral pattern on this branchy piece of rubble to see if I could get it to grow like that. Time will tell me if its completely dead or not.

 

[Derbird]

Wow that is not a good way to come home, but I'm glad to hear the losses are minimal. I agree with mfinn, a great excuse to upgrade your pumps and sleep better at night

 

[mfinn]

Since there was an absence of water and/or water stains and NO evidence of what you propose then I refer you to Sherlock Holmes; "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? Since the power head came off the glass and fell down farther into the tank (I presume) unless you had a powerful 750 gph or something in there it would be impossible to shoot water out, especially with newer dispersal patterns found from the Koralia pumps or similar. As far as the cyano, time will tell if re-appears in a week or two.

It isn't going to take a 750gph powerhead to send water over the edge of the tank when it is pointing up.
One such as a Maxi jet 900 will send water quite a ways in the air.
And as the op said, the tank is not going to evaporate 4-5 gallons of water in a few days.

 

[Gryphon]

Well fortunately the 90g that will be the new home of everything in the 10g has the magnetic base power heads. Sadly the money I was going to spend towards the RODI that the tank is waiting for went towards a rental car this weekend as I didn't feel comfortable taking my truck over Chinook.

 

[N1Husker]

The mysteries at the aquarium.

 

[Gryphon]

The mysteries at the aquarium.

Isn't that the truth! :lol:

 

[NC2WA]

The mysteries at the aquarium.

sounds like a good movie title..is Ben Stiller going to star in this?? LOL

 

[N1Husker]

Could be a miniseries on A&E or the Animal Planet.

 

[NC2WA]

maybe it could follow Tanked on Animal Planet, ??

 

[N1Husker]

I think were onto something here, Kirk.

 

[pinkfloydfan]

It isn't going to take a 750gph powerhead to send water over the edge of the tank when it is pointing up.
One such as a Maxi jet 900 will send water quite a ways in the air.
And as the op said, the tank is not going to evaporate 4-5 gallons of water in a few days.

Just trying to figure this out. Using logic again, if the power head was powerful enough to shoot water out of the tank (we still don't know what type power head it is, stream or dispersal) to shoot 50% of the water out it would have to have been about half way down in the tank pointing up and we were never given that info. A power head could only shoot water out, if powerful enough, to the point where the water level is above or equal to where the pump is positioned, once the water level is below the power head it can not shoot any more water out. Puzzling indeed.

 

[Gryphon]

Maxi-jet 400 set up in power head mode (110gph). From the looks of things the suction cups came loose from the base, allowing it to to tilt and spray at a more upwards angle. As the water level came down so did the power head until the out flow was low enough to be contained inside the tank. The shroud? (fan shaped dispersal part) were already tilted to angle the flow upwards at the surface of the tank. The out flow didn't have to go far to clear the side of the tank, and even at the end what little did get over was enough that over the days I was gone it accumulated.

Either way, lesson has been learned on this, and hopefully will be a non-issue next vacation I take.

 

[pinkfloydfan]

Maxi-jet 400 set up in power head mode (110gph). From the looks of things the suction cups came loose from the base, allowing it to to tilt and spray at a more upwards angle. As the water level came down so did the power head until the out flow was low enough to be contained inside the tank. The shroud? (fan shaped dispersal part) were already tilted to angle the flow upwards at the surface of the tank. The out flow didn't have to go far to clear the side of the tank, and even at the end what little did get over was enough that over the days I was gone it accumulated.

Either way, lesson has been learned on this, and hopefully will be a non-issue next vacation I take.

O.k. After reading what you say I can conclude that the Maxi-Jet being a stream (jet) it could expel water out of the tank, then with more air space over the water evaporation can take place at a greater than normal rate thus producing the 45-50% water loss. So, I think.......mystery solved!

 

[Gryphon]

How would do you get more air space over the water? The surface area of the water inside the tank remains a constant due to the rigid shape of the tank itself.

 

[mfinn]

He still thinks it was evaporation. lol